,
Lingtai County,
Western Zhou period (1045–771 BCE).
Gansu Museum. This is considered as a possible depiction of a
Xianyun. According to
Nicola Di Cosmo, 'Rong' was a vague term for warlike foreigner. He places them from the upper
Wei River valley and along the
Fen River to the
Taiyuan basin as far as the
Taihang Mountains. This would be the northwestern edge of what was then China and also the transition zone between agricultural and steppe ways of life. The historian
Li Feng says that during the
Western Zhou period, since the term
Rong "warlike foreigners" was "often used in bronze inscriptions to mean 'warfare', it is likely that when a people was called 'Rong', the Zhou considered them as political and military adversaries rather than as cultural and ethnic 'others'." Paul R. Goldin also proposes that
Rong was a "pseudo-ethnonym" meaning "bellicose". -style
Majiayuan culture tomb figurines (3rd-2nd century BCE). found in
Majiayuan M4, Gansu, 3rd century BCE. , Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. After the
Zhou dynasty, the term usually referred to various peoples in the west during early and late medieval times. Xirong was also the name of a state during the
Spring and Autumn and
Warring States periods of Chinese history. The Xirong together with the eastern
Dongyi, northern
Beidi, and southern
Nanman were collectively called the
Sìyí (). The
Liji "Record of Rites" details ancient stereotypes about them. The people of those five regions – the Middle states, and the [Rong], [Yi], (and other wild tribes round them) – had all their several natures, which they could not be made to alter. The tribes on the east were called [Yi]. They had their hair unbound, and tattooed their bodies. Some of them ate their food without its being cooked. Those on the south were called Man. They tattooed their foreheads, and had their feet turned in towards each other. Some of them (also) ate their food without its being cooked. Those on the west were called [Rong]. They had their hair unbound, and wore skins. Some of them did not eat grain-food. Those on the north were called [Di]. They wore skins of animals and birds, and dwelt in caves. Some of them also did not eat grain-food. The people of the Middle states, and of those [Yi], Man, [Rong], and [Di], all had their dwellings, where they lived at ease; their flavours which they preferred; the clothes suitable for them; their proper implements for use; and their vessels which they prepared in abundance. In those five regions, the languages of the people were not mutually intelligible, and their likings and desires were different. To make what was in their minds apprehended, and to communicate their likings and desires, (there were officers) – in the east, called transmitters; in the south, representationists; in the west, [Di-dis]; and in the north, interpreters. [The term 狄鞮
didi (
ti-ti) is identified as: "(
anc.) Interpreter of the Di, barbarians of the west." Translated and adapted from the French.] Note: "middle states" () in this quotation refers to the "
Middle Kingdom", i.e.
China. Spade-foot three-legged pottery vessels as well as one and two handled pots were primary cultural characteristics of the Xirong.
William H. Baxter and
Laurent Sagart (2014) reconstruct the
Old Chinese name of Róng as . Today, similar-sounding self-designated
ethnonyms among modern-day
Tibeto-Burman peoples in western China include
Rgyalrong of
Sichuan, and
Nung and
Trung of northwestern
Yunnan (
see also Rung languages). Průšek suggests relations between the Rong during the Zhou dynasty and the Rén ( < OC *ni[ŋ]) tribes during
Shang dynasty, however, the Rén () dwelt in southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu, thus east, not west, of the Shang. ==Timeline==